The 'Burkini Battle': France’s capitulation to extremism

Reduced to symbols of national identity, women are caught in
the center of a tug-of-war in which any amount of violence, of coercion and
regulation of their bodies is justified in order to win the battle.

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Chris Carlson/AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.Approximately
two years ago in Turkey, there was an odd case in which AKP-allied Deputy Prime
Minister Bulent Arinc made a statement declaring that it was indecent for women to laugh
in public or, presumably, in mixed company.

Naturally, this statement was
effectively a call to arms. Women took to social media in droves, posting
pictures of themselves smiling accompanied by the hashtags #direnkahkaha
(resist laughing) and #direnkadin (resist woman). Many similar stories have
come out of the Middle East since the rise of social media, in which online
activists and citizens protest their government’s encroachments upon their
self-representation and lifestyle.

Recently, another such viral campaign came
in the form of Masih Alinejad’s “My Stealthy Freedom Project.” A fascinating challenge to both
Iran’s state-enforced gender binary and state-enforced veiling/modesty codes of
dress, this campaign as well as the #resistlaughing campaign and many others
like it have been hailed in international media as shining examples of women
and their male allies fighting against a repressive and reactionary theocratic
state, and received well-deserved popularity and accolades for their bravery.

Last
week, another story of reactionary state control over women’s bodies rose for
its moment of international attention, yet this time the tone of coverage by
international media outlets was generally one of uncomfortable ambivalence. Beginning
with the cancellation of a planned party at a waterpark and expanding to include
legislation by several towns in France and an ongoing protest, the 'burkini' (a
swimming costume allowing for most of the body to remain covered while in the
water) has become a central topic in France’s ongoing crisis over its
relationship to its Muslim citizens.

The burkini has now been reportedly banned
in five towns including Cannes, with local leaders and political pundits
flinging about phrases such as, “saving the soul of France” and “national security”
as justification for the ban. It is worth noting that the hysteria over the
burkini is somewhat comical, given that there was no incident or issue that
directly prompted it.

Muslim women in
France are a minority group, and obviously not all Muslim women in France
desire to don this particular style of swimwear (in fact, The Times even reported that many of the mayors considering
implementing a ban admitted they had never actually seen a burkini). But sadly,
the cognitive link between what is visibly recognized as Islamic styles of
modest dress and threats of terrorism is already well established in France.
One, it would appear, does not have to work hard to convince the majority
populace that there is a direct link between a woman who covers her hair in
public and a suicide bomber.

As for
the women in France directly affected by the 'burkini ban': we must ask
ourselves why it is that their protest is not being portrayed in international
media as a plucky, charming and promising challenge to encroaching state
repression in the same manner as the protests in Turkey, Iran, and so many
other places.

This is a multi-layered issue, and not one that should be
attributed solely to the bias or the Islamophobia of international media
outlets. What is remarkable is the relative silence of most major progressive
feminist groups and publications. It would appear that no one quite knows what
to do with this issue, other than carefully report its bare facts and hope that
someone else draws the conclusions.

Within France however, the conclusions were
drawn before the issue even arose. When protesting for their right to swim
comfortably, what recourse do these women have? What hashtag can they generate
when their voices have already been inscribed by the leaders of their own
society as the voices of terrorism, as the voices of “provocation” and
“enslavement”? Anything they say, any argument they make for the right to
present their bodies and their identities in a manner of their choosing has
already been filtered through the grotesque, distorting mirror of “security
threat”.

France has had an unspeakably tragic year, and the
reaction to legislate accordingly is more than understandable. What is becoming
less understandable is the unspoken yet clearly present policy decision that
marginalizing large groups of France’s population (French citizens included),
that making France as unlivable a place as possible for anyone who is not 'culturally French' (read: secular), that inconveniencing the lives of women
and creating misery and disillusionment is an effective strategy of
counterterrorism.

It is utterly baffling to think that the mayor of Cannes, that
French politicians and policy makers do not see the parallel structure of their
own attempts to wage the 'culture war' (itself an absurd notion) upon the
bodies of women to the same attempts being made in countries such as Iran and Saudi
Arabia.

The heavy-handed puppetry involved in forcing women to
perform and present the national image as a part of themselves, all in the name
of their own 'liberation', is a dangerous product of both the colonial era and
of the same theories of eugenics that formed the theoretical basis of Hitler’s
Nazi regime.

The idea that national
identity and safety must be represented on the bodies and behaviors of women is
terrifying.

In France’s case, it
does a deep disservice both to France’s Muslim minority population and to
French women in general, including those whose identities and lifestyles fit
within the range of what is considered 'culturally French.' In these times of
enhanced surveillance, of the repressive and violent policing of noncompliant
bodies and of governmental states of exception declared in which we are told
that all of us, citizen and non-citizen alike, must give up many of our
previously legislated rights in the name of our own security. The idea that national
identity and safety must be represented on the bodies and behaviors of women is
terrifying.

The mobilization of certain French feminist organizations
in support of the ban is particularly troubling. For example, socialist minister for families,
children and women’s rights Laurence Rossignol stated that she is in favor of the ban,
and will “fight strongly” against the ideology that she believes the burkini
represents.

Yet apparently the ideology that a woman must free herself by
putting her body on display for the pleasure and pride of an audience of
(largely male) French politicians is one that Ms. Rossignol has no problem
adopting. To draw the ideological analogy – were Ms. Rossignol to be told that in order to receive a career promotion, women in
France must wear short skirts and lasciviously flirt with male superiors, wouldn't she have strong reservations?

Yet, as it stands, this is effectively what she
is asking a particular segment of France’s Muslim community to do. To regulate
their behavior and display their bodies in a way that is pleasing to the eye of
those in positions of power over them and in line with what is expected of
them. This line of argument against “the enslavement of women” is little more
than racism and sexism couched in the language of feminism.

It is utterly imperative that the culture
war being dually constructed by extremist and reactionary clerics within
Islamic contexts, and by extremist and reactionary members of the French
government be named for what it is: a battle in which two supposedly opposing 'sides' reaffirm and support the dogma of the other, effectively forming an
alliance of enemies within which both sides unintentionally aid the other to
inflict violence.

Reduced to symbols of national identity, women are caught in
the center of a tug-of-war in which any amount of violence, of coercion and
regulation of their bodies is justified in order to win the battle. Non-Muslim
French women, it is a grave mistake to think that this will not affect you.
Europe has already seen the ultimate conclusion of such projects of national
unity = national image, and it likely will again.

I find myself hoping that the
political leaders in France who support such legislation are somehow simply
blind to the staggering similarities between their own actions and the actions
of those 'archaic' governments that mandate a moral dress code for women in
public. Because if they do see this parallel, and simply do not care, we are
truly in dangerous waters.

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